TNI Bureau: In a startling development, the Odisha Home Department has sought registration of an FIR and a detailed investigation into the disappearance of two crucial Judicial Commission of Inquiry reports that were allegedly sent to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) but are now untraceable.
According to an official communication dated June 10, 2026, Joint Secretary to Government Sarat Chandra Marandi informed the Inspector-in-Charge of Capital Police Station, Bhubaneswar, that the missing documents include the report of the Justice A.S. Naidu Commission, which probed the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and others in Kandhamal, and the RDC inquiry report on the devastating fire incident at SUM Hospital & Medical College, Bhubaneswar.
The Home Department stated that both reports were duly forwarded through the Chief Secretary’s office to the CMO in 2016 and 2018 respectively for necessary action. However, recent searches revealed that neither report is available in the CMO.
The letter further notes that several other files and reports sent to the CMO were returned to the Home Department on June 4, 2024, following the change of government in Odisha. Significantly, the two inquiry reports were not among the returned records and remain missing.
The Home Department has expressed suspicion that the reports may have been intentionally removed, retained, concealed, destroyed, or otherwise unlawfully dealt with. It has described the disappearance of the reports as a matter of serious public concern, citing possible offences related to unauthorized removal, criminal breach of trust, concealment, and destruction of official records.
Seeking a thorough probe, the department has requested police to identify those responsible and take action in accordance with the law.
The development is likely to spark a major political controversy, given the sensitivity of both inquiry reports and the questions being raised about the handling of official records at the highest levels of government.
